Terror hits Lebanon on the eve of the Hariri assassination anniversary

The Lebanese red cross is still counting casualties from two explosions that hit two buses transporting morning commuters in Ain Alaq, near Bekfaya in Mount Lebanon.

Early reports put the number of killed at 12, but the Red Cross could only confirm three so far, with many wounded. LBC said rescue workers have not yet been able to identify and move all body parts to hospitals.

The explosions come a day before the second anniversary of the Hariri assassination. March 14 is planning a massive rally to commemorate the February 14 2005 killing of the former PM and at least 20 others.

Lebanon's civil war officially started with a bus massacre—gunmen attacked a bus on April 13 1975 carrying Palestinians in the Christian neighborhood of Ain El Remmeneh. The February 13 2007 attacks, which targeted Christians -- the terrorists' favored targets since the Hariri assassination --  were probably designed to ignite another civil war on the eve of the commemorations.

According to Naharnet, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh is claiming that the targeted buses were rented to carry participants in tomorrow's rally.

Update. The official death toll is three, with 20 injured. A 35 year old mother of two is among those killed. Here's a video from the site of the explosions courtesy of LBC.

Update 2. March 14 issued a statement accusing the Syrian regime of orchestrating the bus bombings and of attempting to turn Lebanon into another Iraq. The statement called for imposing sanctions on the regime and sending international troops to monitor the border with Syria.

Comments

[Jay]

Would it be too much to ask for one of these crimes to be investigated and perpetrators caught? Still waiting for anything to come out of Pierre Gemayel's assassination...

[ghassan karam]

The skeptic in me is starting to take much more seriously what many of us have said "tongue in cheek" that the real goal of those behind the explosions, terror and assassinations in Lebanon is not to start a civil war but to speed the exodus of decent civil residents. What a diabolical scheme !!!!

[Jeha]

Note that this comes on the heels of the kidnapping of Lebanese police by Palestinian islamists... Paradoxically, this makes Hezb's situation untenable. People are going to insist that it gives up its weapons and stop its demonstrations against the government, or they will take matters in their own hands.

And since Nasrallah and Aoun cannot be requested to "tone down" their rethoric, we are faced with the only choice of partitioning the country to ensure each own minimum level of safety.

[Mustapha]

There we go again..

[JoseyWales]

Terrible, but not surprising, especially with all the armed camps, Jund-al-Sham, Islamic Fatah kidnapping police etcc left without any response.

Also taking bets: How long before HA-Syria useless idiots come out to claim the bus-bombs are part of the Zionist-imperialist plot.

[ghassan karam]

Josey, I will be surprised if Lahoud does not point the finger , as usual under Syrian instructions, at the Zionist entity. It is sad isn't it that those who claim to have Lebanon's interest at heart are the ones that have instigated a destructive war, paralyzed the economy, chased away foreign investment, impoverished the population ... With friends like these who needs enemies?

[Jeha]

Josey,

At this stage of the mess, even if it were true, those "useless idiots" are viewed as responsible. And we'll all end up paying the price for it if they do not smarten up; acts like this increasingly convince peopel that the country's partition a very attractive proposal.

Mustapha is right; "here we go again"...

[Enough BS]

We need to get this tribunal, fast.

[Vulcan]

instead of marching to downtown the Lebanese should march to Baabda now and remove the Syrian whore Lahood

[Louis-Noel Harfouche]

"the real goal of those behind the explosions, terror and assassinations in Lebanon is not to start a civil war but to speed the exodus of decent civil residents..."

You are spot on, Ghassan.
Check out this sad piece.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4424050.html

[BadVilbel]

"Here we go again" is right...

[R]

Somehow Louis-Noel, just somehow, I have the impression that Ghassan did not mean a specific sect but meant this as a more general statement about "decent civil residents"...

[Jeha]

R,

Good point. But you can still consider Christians as a useful "barometer"; among the country's "decent civil residents", they would be the first to move.

Then again, a better barometer would have been educated southern Shiites of the South and the Beqaa, who started getting outta dodge in the mid 90's... But they do not sell papers in the West.

[Maya]

Vulcan,

"march to Baabda now and remove the Syrian whore Lahood!" Amen to that. I will be first in line. The Syrians must have had inside help from the Lahoud security apparatus to carry out such an operation. How can these people sleep at night? Are monsters like Bashar a product of their environment or their genetic make-up, I wonder.

AK, I don't think that the civil war will start again with the bus bombing. To me, the civil war started with the murder of "the architect of post war Lebanon" and my personal hero, Hariri. All the money he spent educating generations of Lebanese and that's how we repaid him. Shame.

Very sad indeed. They need to really make sure that no other bombs are planted in the centre-ville for tomorrow's gathering. I fear the worst.

[Solomon2]

How can these people sleep at night?

The same way "good people" everywhere manage to when doing terrible things that are unjust: they build up lies in their minds and their surroundings until they can convince themselves that the lies add up to a believeable totality. They can then forget that the structure they created was founded upon lies.

Some hold that Arabs amd Muslims are particularly susceptible to this sort of thing, citing the fable of "Youssef's nap, the children, and the free dates".

[Kody]

A soothsayer once said that the "predictability of a tragedy in Lebanon is as common as a junction in the road"

Why does this bus bombing surprise no one? Every one will point to vested interests, both sides accusing the other etc! What is needed now is common sense! Unfortunately Lebanon has no sense of itself! and its citizens need to ask themselves "How do we step back from this abyss that is being created by these sinister hands?

Clearly self restraint is needed, given the lack of any sense of being "Lebanese", I pity the people and the innocents, clearly Lebanese blood is cheap!

[Louis-Noel Harfouche]

R, relax! The link was meant as a wakeup call, not an affront to your sensitivities. EVERY ethnoreligious component of the Lebanese polity is essential to the Lebanese national fabric. Lebanon invented the concept of "dialogue of civilizations" long before a modern term was even concocted to describe the exercise; long before it even became fashionable.
By the same token, Lebanon is meaningless without a permanently safe, secure, and confident Christian component; a foundational element of the Lebanese polity. Lebanon is equally meaningless without its foundational Druze, Shi'a, Sunni, Jewish, Circassian, Kurdish, Armenian, Arab, non-Arab, agnostic, gay, religious, apathetic ......fill in the blanks..... communities.

THAT is why Lebanon's Maronites REFUSED the lure of a 90% Maronite petit-Liban every chance such an opportunity was afforded them (1918, 1920, 1936, 1943, 1958, 1975, 1982... ...)

A monolithic monocultural nation is an anachronism nowadays. But Lebanon knew that (and lived by its humanist multi-cultural vocation) long before multiculturalism became fashionable. Loooooong before Iyyéém Fakhreddine; back in the days when Phoenicia ruled the Mediterranean (and ruled NOT through fear and coercion but by seduction.) It's not for nothing that Fakhreddine took on the sobriquet of "Amir Finii2ya"...

So please, R! Spare me the bromides about what Ghassan did or did not mean by what he said. I know what he meant, and I don't see why it should offend anyone that I voice concern about the dwindling Christian communities, NOT ONLY IN LEBANON, but throughout the Middle East; the birthplace of Christianity.

As a Lebanese writer recently put it here http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal_fr/2006/jv1no1a4.html
(and I hope you will not be offended by the quote, R)

"Il est grand temps que les Arabes et les arabisants de ce monde, ainsi que leurs sympathisants forcenés, viennent à reconnaître et consentir à [la diversité éthnique du Proche-Orient]. Il est grand temps que les « forces morales » de la terre, que les « puissances » garantes des droits de l’Homme et que les intellectuels du monde s’accordent, sincèrement, à se tenir garants d’un Proche-Orient­, « réserve internationale », où pourraient vivre dans la paix, la dignité et la liberté de conscience, les quelques spécimens rares qui nous restent encore des vieilles civilisations humaines, dans ce premier foyer de l’histoire humaine. C’est seulement ainsi que nous parviendrons un jour, peut-être, à nous rapprocher d’une entente modique et d’une paix durable, dans ce Proche-Orient pluriel ; sans quoi, c’est de nouveau, et à l’infini, abyssus abyssum invocat."

[Maya]

Louis-Noel,

Lebanon is the only Arab country where the Christian population represents such a large percentage of the overall population (30 to 35% I believe). It would be a tragedy to see Lebanon turn into a purely Muslim country, and a huge loss to our brain power and rich and diversified heritage. A Lebanon without LBC TV, Fairuz and the Rahbanis is never going to be the same and will cease to be the Arab innovator in advertising, media and TV production. I'm not Christian but I shudder to think of a Lebanon run by Nasrallah and his likes. He would turn it into another Iran. So, I do understand your feelings completely and agree with you that we should not let Lebanon's Christian population be persecuted. I also believe that the Chritian villagers in the South are being pushed out by HA and if I were in their shoes, I would not feel safe there at all, just like I would never feel safe living in the Eastern side of Beirut after my family was forced out at gun point in the 70s. The problem with Lebanese is their inability to distance themselves from their sect and view themselves as one single nation, rather than a bunch of tribes sharing the same land. I don't think this is going to happen in our lifetime. I also don't blame any Lebanese for choosing to build a safe and prosperous future elsewhere. I did that and thank God every day that I don't have to live in fear anymore and that my religion does not dictate where I can live and who I can vote for.

[ghassan karam]

Louis-Noel/R/Jeha/Maya,
In a sense I am glad that my remark has set off this very well thought and profound exchange, although this was not my intention:-) I hope you will all be so generous as to indulge me some observations on this subject matter.
Whenever I think , maybe on a daily basis, of the civil modern Lebanon that I want I am usually driven by logic to choose a state whereby all its citizens have at a minimum built a Chinese wall between the sacred and the secular although I must admit my preference will be a society that can transcend the issues of personal faith. The above statement sounds harmless and consistent on the face of it. But then we have the tendency to add, just as Louie-Noel and Maya argued so eloquently and forcefully , that all the essential faiths are to be preserved otherwise the distinctive social fabric that is Lebanon will no longer be there.
It seems to me that the above two statements are in contradiction with each other. This problem is very similar to that described by G. Hardin in his "Tragedy of the Commons". At times we face problems whose logical outcome locks us into a tragedy. Note that we wish to preserve that which has created the instability that we want to avoid. The modern Lebanon that many of us envision is one whose citizens are above all cosmopolitans but yet Lebanese above everything else. That demand seems to be an essential one for a strong national fabric. But then we also want to preserve the myriad institutions whose adherents do not recognize the very idea of a national identity.Something must give. I have come to the conclusion that it is high time that we sacrifice the traditional religious affilliations in favour of a more unifying and a stronger national fabric. We should not promote two conflicting ideas at the same time. Modernity and social stability require a major deemphasis of the personal religious component and even its irradication.If we can all become Lebanese then being Christian, Moslem, Druze or Martian becomes immaterial. We are after all members of the same race and the cultural differences are artificial in the sense that they are acquired.
Maya, I believe that I understand what you are saying and I am not suggesting that we can evolve anytime soon into a community where sectarian differences are immaterial but don't you think that it would be far better to applaud and rejoice in the contributions of Fairouz, the Rahbanis, Gibran, Akl etc... without knowing what Gods , if any, they pray for?
The tragedy of the commons, in all its manifestations has only one solution: coercion. The Lebanese problem is not any different. We need a strong effective government that will put in place measures of "mutual coercion mutually agreed upon" that will slowly but surely reduce the power of organised religious institutions and build a national identity separate from the sacred one. I will begin by deemphasising the role of Bkirki, the Mufti, Imams and the Sheikh Al Aqel.

[R]

Louis-Noel,

I wasn't offended at all. I just found that your agreement with Ghassan was slightly twisted. He meant one thing, you agreed, and then stated another as if they were one and the same.
You see, as an ardent secularist, I believe that Ghassan's "decent civil residents" are not exclusively Christians, Muslim, or worshippers of the Roman wine god (if only :)). However, there have been many media "wake up calls" recently with regards to immigration, I can point you to one on the BBC website. You chose to pick an article that singles out the Christian "community". I think that in doing that you fell into the very trap that whomever has been behind all the killings in Lebanon, wanted you to fall into. That of sectarianism, of fear of the "other", of a "clash of civilizations", of lumping all the muslims of the middle east together and all the christians together, as if they were all one and the same and as if each operated as a homogeneous group. Markedly, they do not. The perpetrators of the horrendous acts that have targetted Lebanon may have been playing on the sectarianism of the Lebanese and hoping to exploit it to their advantage, I just hope we do not play into their hands.

The rest of what I have to say matches Ghassan's comment - well said.

As for the French quote, I would appreciate a translation :).

Cheers,
R

[Hassan]

wow, and I thought Ghassan's "...the exodus of decent civil residents" was taking a swing at the FPM's position on the motive behind yesterday's bombings.
I'm sure no one here takes pleasure in the exodus of any minority community in Lebanon, except for probably those who do manage to successfully emigrate :)
Anyway, I just want to say it's nice to be poetic, but it's also nice to be able to draw the line between poetry and reality.

[Maya]

Ghassan,

You said "Maya, I believe that I understand what you are saying and I am not suggesting that we can evolve anytime soon into a community where sectarian differences are immaterial but don't you think that it would be far better to applaud and rejoice in the contributions of Fairouz, the Rahbanis, Gibran, Akl etc... without knowing what Gods , if any, they pray for?"

I was just making a point Ghassan that the Christian Lebanese are a very important part of the Lebanese fabric, history and heritage and have been a catalyst towards its society being so liberal, open minded and westernized. It is a Christian TV station that brought to the Arab world musical video clips that show young men and women dancing together. It is the same TV station that adopted a French program where young men and women are filmed as they live in a co-ed environment. This may seem trivial to some but it has shaken the conservative beliefs of many Arab Muslims and is a thorn in the side of the mullahs and Saudi Sheikhs. A Lebanon without its Christian population would be a much more conservative society gearing towards radical Islam, with a larger number of veiled Lebanese women, segregated schools and TV stations like Al Manar where a "Sayyid" tells us how to live, what to believe and when to say "Baaaaaaa!". Yuck!!!!

[Maya]

Louis-Noel,

I copied the great piece by Robert Sole that you had linked to and sent it to everyone I know. I just loved it and loved his use of reverse psychology. Thank you so much for sharing.

[Abu Kais]

In case anyone is wondering why there were no posts today-- I've been having technical difficulties with typepad. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.